Clients

Client's Moment of Gratitude

A new vision - Anonymous

I have known Bart and Dr. Williams for over 10 years and my understanding of my life and their role in it deepens with every conversation. When I started seeing them, I thought of Dr. Williams as akin to a fortune teller; I asked questions about whether love, friendship, or success would be forthcoming and when and how. Only slowly did I come to understand that through Dr. Williams God is talking to me. I still ask questions about decisions in all areas in my life but these questions are now more questions about Being and Becoming versus questions about Having. Through Dr. Williams's guidance on these more existential questions, I feel as if one callous layer after another is peeled away from my senses; that with every reading I become more conscious - more human, that is. The following conversation between Dr. Williams and myself is the epitome of his influence on my life. Stuck in a career that I did not consider satisfying, I had heard about an institute that trains psychotherapists. Determined to take this new route, all I really wanted to know from Dr. Williams was whether the institute would accept me or not. His answer was: "Like a plant, to blossom to the fullest, we need the best possible soil, sun, and nourishment. And this institute does not offer what your particular flower needs." He explained to me that intellectual achievement was part of what I had committed to in this life and that I needed to set my standards higher, as far as institutions were concerned. He then phrased his advice in a different metaphor: "God does not only want you to get the a ring. He wants you to have the bracelet, earrings, the necklace - everything." I am currently completing my Ph.D. at the country's top business school. This conversation is characteristic of Dr. Williams's influence on my life in that he has shown me a life that I never thought was possible. With every conversation anew, he shows me what it means to be living fully and to be fully alive. In all areas of my life - including affairs of love, friendship, health, beauty and art, and career - my vision of what was possible for me had been conditioned by the various environments that I had participated in. Measuring myself by the standards of other people, I was content with lackluster friendships, dissatisfying assignments, being overweight, overworked, and physically weak. But Dr. Williams gave me a new vision: "Your body a temple; your home a place of pilgrimage, and your friends gods and goddesses." My health, energy, my friendships - and yes, my outer appearance and material situation - have been all been improving every step of the way I am traveling with Dr. Williams. I cluster these issues together reflecting Dr. Williams's teaching that all of our life reflects and is the concern of divinity, the ephemeral as well as the material and trivial. I am aware of what it means to say that I owe Dr. Williams everything that is meaningful and important in my life. Yet, I feel I have not even come close to expressing the deep significance of his influence on my life and on the lives of those I love.